Lyco men stumble

Jon Gerardi

Assistant Sports Editor

jgerardi@sungazette.com

Down near the baseline with the shot clock ticking toward zero, Arcadia’s Brandon Thomp­son had no real look. With two Lycoming defenders draped over him, all he could do was try to shoot and hope.

So the Knights’ guard did a quick turnaround and let go of his shot.

It ended up being a dagger to Lycoming.

After Lycoming and Arcadia flirted with the lead a handful of times, Thompson’s trey tied the game up at 76 and from there, Arcadia swung the momentum.

Thompson’s 3-pointer was in the midst of a string of five consecutive by Arcadia in the second half that helped the Knights pull ahead from Lycoming en route to a 101-91 Middle Atlantic Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at Lamade Gymnasium.

A quick 8-0 spurt after Thompson’s trey helped Arcadia (12-9, 7-5 MAC) go ahead by nine and from there, eventually take a double-digit lead against the Warriors (19-3, 10-3).

“They did a great job making shots. When you make shots, it’s hard to beat a team,” Ly­coming coach Guy Rancourt said.

Arcadia hit 17 of 32 3-pointers as the Knights had two players end with at least 20 points in Josh Scott (26 points) and Da’kquan Davis (20).

The Knights did damage in the first half by sinking nine of their 17 3-pointers and exchanged the lead with Lycoming a total of 11 times in the first 20 minutes of the game.

“It’s just going to stretch you out and you really have a tough time being able to guard a defense that can go that far out on the perimeter,” Rancourt said.

Freshman Ramadan Jen­nings had his first career double-double as he scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, in­cluding a team-high seven boards. In addition, seniors Chris Wallace and Alex New­bold scored 15 each as they were honored before the tip for Senior Day.

Lycoming’s largest lead was eight points late in the first half when Jennings hit a shot to go ahead, 44-36, but Arcadia kept battling back and eventually took a 52-50 lead into the half.

“We just had to make an adjustment defensively. We had to put our foot on the gas pedal a little more,” Rancourt said. “The time was working against us, time and score, so we had to find a way to speed Arcadia up, but they did a good job mantaining their discipline and trying to slow the game down at the end there.”

Lycoming took a lead in the second half when TJ Duckett hit a trey to go ahead, 67-65. The Warriors ended up leading by as many as four thanks to an and-1 by freshman Ramadan Jennings, but just over a minute later, Arcadia tied it up and took the eventual lead for good in a game which had 14 lead changes.

“The hot shooting really put us in a bad position. We have to do a better job handling that foul situation,” Rancourt said. “We put ourselves in a bad position fouling early in the game and that’s forced us to change our rotations.”

Lycoming kept battling until the end, but couldn’t mount a rally to tie it or reclaim the lead.

Despite losing a league game, the Warriors are still first in the MAC Common­wealth standings, a game ahead of Albright (9-4), who beat Lebanon Valley (8-5) on Saturday.

Lycoming and Albright play in the final game of the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Albright. But first is the home finale Tuesday at Lamade Gym vs. Stevenson.